A friend asked what I thought of the above poster which shows contradictions in the Bible. I saw it a few months ago. I even downloaded the PDF to try to get a better look at it. If you look at it closely, it claims there are 439 contradictions in the Bible. Sounds impressive, and it looks impressive. It’s a striking design. One of the articles I originally read about it (which I can’t find at the moment) said “Reading the list of contradictions isn’t the point… the point is to show all of the contradictions.” The thing is… some of these contradictions are… well… here’s a sampling: How many of Bebai’s offspring returned from Babylon? Was Haman an Agagite? When did Baasha die? Was Jehu the son or grandson of Nimshi? How high was the chapiter? How many of Senaah’s offspring returned from Babylon? You get the idea. There are 17 asking variations of “How many … returned from Babylon?” Some of them are goofy: What color was Jesus’ robe? What? He’s not allowed to have more than one? Some of them are actually fairly significant theological questions: Did Adam die on the day he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? gen 2:17 ≠ gen 3:6, 5:5 Because God told Adam: And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) But the serpent said: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) Guess what happened next? So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Genesis 3:6-7) They didn’t die. Theologically, this could be a problem because it sounds like the serpent told the truth and God lied. Of course you’re talking about a story where a serpent has the ability to speak so we may have some additional things to talk about. There are some other fairly significant issues: Is death final? How should nonbelievers be treated? Is divorce ever permissible? Is Salvation by faith alone? Is it possible to fall from grace? There is a field of study called “Systematic Theology” which tries to create a consistent understanding of God and how Christians should live. But I doubt you could find a single Systematic Theology professor at any reputable seminary or divinity school who would claim that the Bible is systematic and consistent. In short, the chart tries to disprove something that, in practice, few people actually care about regardless of whether or not they are people of faith (more on that below). ~ Oops… wait a minute… ~ I found a problem with the chart… #263 and #264 are the same… they both read “What were the last words of Jesus? mat 27:46 ≠ lk 23:46 ≠ jn 19:30” You know what this means… since there’s an error in the chart the entire chart must be wrong!!! There’s absolutely nothing that you can learn from this chart. This chart is obviously a lie and should be ignored! Wait! I found another one! #323 and #324 are both “How much power did Jesus have? mat 20:23, mk 6:5 ≠ mat 28:18” And there’s a typo! #402 “Can theives [sic] go to heaven? mk 15:27, lk 23:32-43 ≠ 1cor 6:9-10” As you know, if there are any mistakes in a document, it immediately invalidates everything about that document. Which is why the US Constitution has been invalidated since it said “All men are created equal” but really it meant “All white men who are also property owners” and only counted African-Americans as 3/5ths of a person. Clearly the whole thing is nullified and the USA is now a colony of England again. Of course you recognize the absurdity in that argument. Just because someone gets something wrong doesn’t make everything they say wrong, which is why we still care about things the Founding Fathers said even though we know many of them were slaveowners, something we find despicable today. Christians still read writings by the Reformers even though many of them were anti-Semitic and anti-women, and we say “On these issues, these men were clearly wrong… but not everything they wrote was wrong.” ~ What’s the purpose of the chart? ~ If you meet someone who is a literal fundamentalist about the Bible and who believes that everything it says it literal truth and absolute history, then yes, that chart might come in handy. You could spend a lot of time debating each of these 439 437 “errors” but I don’t think that it’s going to be a good use of anyone’s time. Then again, such people are largely straw men. You aren’t going to find them even in the most conservative of Christian churches. I suppose you could use this chart to challenge anyone who claims to be a literalist. But really, it’s not going to change their mind… or yours. This chart is one of those things which is highly amusing to those who agree with the general sentiment behind its creation, which I assume is something along the lines of: religion is bad, religious people are stupid, the Bible is dumb, etc. If you were inclined to think that way before you saw the chart, you like the chart. But no one really expects that it’s going to lead to a “conversion experience” where someone says “I used to believe in God but now that I’ve seen this chart I don’t anymore.” ~ Why I’m not a literalist… ~ John Calvin (who was a great theologian who also had someone executed for political reasons, because reality is messy) said (I’m paraphrasing from memory) “the Scriptures are trust-worthy in all things related to salvation.” So I’m not bothered by the fact that there are two creation stories in Genesis. I’m also not going to the Creationism Museum to hear about how people walked on the earth with the dinosaurs. I was also taught that there is a difference between taking the Bible literally and taking it seriously. (Aside: Marcus Borg wrote a book called Reading the Bible Again For the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally which may be helpful for those who would like to know more about this way of reading scripture. I don’t think he invented the phrase, he just used it in his book title.) A literalist has to explain a talking snake in Genesis 3. Meanwhile, I look at the story of Adam and Eve and realizing that human beings have always had self-destructive tendencies. We do things even though we know they are wrong (see also: actual eating habits compared to how we know we should eat). Genesis 1-3 tells me human nature hasn’t changed in all of the thousands of years humans have existed. I’m completely unconcerned with people having a literal interpretation of “6 days of creation” but would be interested in talking to people of faith about what it means that we believe God created order out of chaos and set humanity to “have dominion” over the earth. I could not possibly care less about how old Terah was when he died, especially when the Bible lists some people as living for hundreds of years. Deuteronomy 34:7 says “Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.” If you read that and focus on a literal understanding of how many 365-day periods Moses lived, you’re missing the point. If you read that and think “What would it mean for me to live my entire life in such a way that my ‘sight will be unimpaired’ and my ‘vigor will not be abated?’” then let’s sit down over a drink and talk. In a day and age when so many people are so narrowly focused on themselves and their own lives, when people are depressed and unable to perform their jobs (or even find jobs) and the result of that means that their energy and zeal for life has dwindled down to the point that they are just trying to survive… the world could really use some people with unimpaired “vision” who bring energy and enthusiasm to change the world.

A friend asked what I thought of the above poster which shows contradictions in the Bible.

I saw it a few months ago. I even downloaded the PDF to try to get a better look at it.

If you look at it closely, it claims there are 439 contradictions in the Bible. Sounds impressive, and it looks impressive. It’s a striking design. One of the articles I originally read about it (which I can’t find at the moment) said “Reading the list of contradictions isn’t the point… the point is to show all of the contradictions.”

The thing is… some of these contradictions are… well… here’s a sampling:

  • How many of Bebai’s offspring returned from Babylon?
  • Was Haman an Agagite?
  • When did Baasha die?
  • Was Jehu the son or grandson of Nimshi?
  • How high was the chapiter?
  • How many of Senaah’s offspring returned from Babylon?

You get the idea. There are 17 asking variations of “How many … returned from Babylon?”

Some of them are goofy:

  • What color was Jesus’ robe?

What? He’s not allowed to have more than one?

Some of them are actually fairly significant theological questions:

  • Did Adam die on the day he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? gen 2:17 ≠ gen 3:6, 5:5

Because God told Adam:

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

But the serpent said:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)

Guess what happened next?

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Genesis 3:6-7)

They didn’t die.

Theologically, this could be a problem because it sounds like the serpent told the truth and God lied. Of course you’re talking about a story where a serpent has the ability to speak so we may have some additional things to talk about.

There are some other fairly significant issues:

  • Is death final?
  • How should nonbelievers be treated?
  • Is divorce ever permissible?
  • Is Salvation by faith alone?
  • Is it possible to fall from grace?

There is a field of study called “Systematic Theology” which tries to create a consistent understanding of God and how Christians should live. But I doubt you could find a single Systematic Theology professor at any reputable seminary or divinity school who would claim that the Bible is systematic and consistent.

In short, the chart tries to disprove something that, in practice, few people actually care about regardless of whether or not they are people of faith (more on that below).

~ Oops… wait a minute… ~

I found a problem with the chart… #263 and #264 are the same… they both read “What were the last words of Jesus? mat 27:46 ≠ lk 23:46 ≠ jn 19:30”

You know what this means… since there’s an error in the chart the entire chart must be wrong!!! There’s absolutely nothing that you can learn from this chart. This chart is obviously a lie and should be ignored!

Wait! I found another one! #323 and #324 are both “How much power did Jesus have? mat 20:23, mk 6:5 ≠ mat 28:18”

And there’s a typo! #402 “Can theives [sic] go to heaven? mk 15:27, lk 23:32-43 ≠ 1cor 6:9-10”

As you know, if there are any mistakes in a document, it immediately invalidates everything about that document. Which is why the US Constitution has been invalidated since it said “All men are created equal” but really it meant “All white men who are also property owners” and only counted African-Americans as 3/5ths of a person. Clearly the whole thing is nullified and the USA is now a colony of England again.

Of course you recognize the absurdity in that argument. Just because someone gets something wrong doesn’t make everything they say wrong, which is why we still care about things the Founding Fathers said even though we know many of them were slaveowners, something we find despicable today. Christians still read writings by the Reformers even though many of them were anti-Semitic and anti-women, and we say “On these issues, these men were clearly wrong… but not everything they wrote was wrong.”

~ What’s the purpose of the chart? ~

If you meet someone who is a literal fundamentalist about the Bible and who believes that everything it says it literal truth and absolute history, then yes, that chart might come in handy. You could spend a lot of time debating each of these 439 437 “errors” but I don’t think that it’s going to be a good use of anyone’s time.

Then again, such people are largely straw men. You aren’t going to find them even in the most conservative of Christian churches. I suppose you could use this chart to challenge anyone who claims to be a literalist. But really, it’s not going to change their mind… or yours.

This chart is one of those things which is highly amusing to those who agree with the general sentiment behind its creation, which I assume is something along the lines of: religion is bad, religious people are stupid, the Bible is dumb, etc. If you were inclined to think that way before you saw the chart, you like the chart. But no one really expects that it’s going to lead to a “conversion experience” where someone says “I used to believe in God but now that I’ve seen this chart I don’t anymore.”

~ Why I’m not a literalist… ~

John Calvin (who was a great theologian who also had someone executed for political reasons, because reality is messy) said (I’m paraphrasing from memory) “the Scriptures are trust-worthy in all things related to salvation.”

So I’m not bothered by the fact that there are two creation stories in Genesis. I’m also not going to the Creationism Museum to hear about how people walked on the earth with the dinosaurs. I was also taught that there is a difference between taking the Bible literally and taking it seriously.

(Aside: Marcus Borg wrote a book called Reading the Bible Again For the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally which may be helpful for those who would like to know more about this way of reading scripture. I don’t think he invented the phrase, he just used it in his book title.)

A literalist has to explain a talking snake in Genesis 3. Meanwhile, I look at the story of Adam and Eve and realizing that human beings have always had self-destructive tendencies. We do things even though we know they are wrong (see also: actual eating habits compared to how we know we should eat). Genesis 1-3 tells me human nature hasn’t changed in all of the thousands of years humans have existed.

I’m completely unconcerned with people having a literal interpretation of “6 days of creation” but would be interested in talking to people of faith about what it means that we believe God created order out of chaos and set humanity to “have dominion” over the earth.

I could not possibly care less about how old Terah was when he died, especially when the Bible lists some people as living for hundreds of years.

Deuteronomy 34:7 says “Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.” If you read that and focus on a literal understanding of how many 365-day periods Moses lived, you’re missing the point. If you read that and think “What would it mean for me to live my entire life in such a way that my ‘sight will be unimpaired’ and my ‘vigor will not be abated?’” then let’s sit down over a drink and talk.

In a day and age when so many people are so narrowly focused on themselves and their own lives, when people are depressed and unable to perform their jobs (or even find jobs) and the result of that means that their energy and zeal for life has dwindled down to the point that they are just trying to survive… the world could really use some people with unimpaired “vision” who bring energy and enthusiasm to change the world.